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Trump wants to use DACA to get his border wall

Trump wants to use DACA to get his border wall

President Donald Trump says he’s open to a deal with Democrats on DACA, but only if it includes funding for his border wall.

In an interview with the New York Times, Trump laid out the contours of the coming fight on immigration, one that could put the president at odds with some members of his own party. For Democrats, he’s dangling DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which allows people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children to stay in the country for renewable two-year periods.

In exchange, Trump wants his vision of immigration reform. In addition to the border wall, estimated to cost anywhere from $21 billion (the Department of Homeland Security’s estimate) to $70 billion (Senate Democrats’ estimate), he wants an end to chain migration, which allows families to bring other members to the U.S., and moving to a merit-based immigration system instead of the current lottery.

President Donald Trump says he’s open to a deal with Democrats on DACA, but only if it includes funding for his border wall.

In an interview with the New York Times, Trump laid out the contours of the coming fight on immigration, one that could put the president at odds with some members of his own party. For Democrats, he’s dangling DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which allows people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children to stay in the country for renewable two-year periods.

In exchange, Trump wants his vision of immigration reform. In addition to the border wall, estimated to cost anywhere from $21 billion (the Department of Homeland Security’s estimate) to $70 billion (Senate Democrats’ estimate), he wants an end to chain migration, which allows families to bring other members to the U.S., and moving to a merit-based immigration system instead of the current lottery.

Trump told the Times his position on immigration is unchanged.

READ: Dreamers don’t trust Democrats to fix DACA in 2018

“I’m just being practical,” Trump said. “No, I don’t think I’m changing. Look, I wouldn’t do a DACA plan without a wall. Because we need it. We see the drugs pouring into the country, we need the wall.”

Democrats in Congress opted to avert a government shutdown rather than push for DACA at the end of the year. But given the rest of Trump’s immigration agenda will be unpalatable to most Democrats and some Republicans, it sets up a big immigration fight when Congress returns in January.

In September, only 25 percent of congressional Republicans said they would support the president's $1.6 billion initial funding request to begin construction of the wall, according to USA Today.

Supporters of DACA, meanwhile, have been calling for what they call a “clean DREAM Act,” a new version of DACA that doesn’t come bundled with additional border security or immigration enforcement.

Trump took to Twitter on Friday morning to reiterate his point, for an end to “horrible” chain migration and the “ridiculous” lottery-based immigration system.